Red Vs Blue: The Blood Gulch Purge
by Luthair Paendrag
Summary: The wars over, but Red and Blue must be put down. Its the men of Blood Gulch up against the best Earth has to offer, including Masterchief. Will they survive? Please Review.
1. It Begins

Disclaimer: I do not own Red VS Blue, or Halo, or anything else. I just get kicks from writing stories.

Note: This story is set in an alternate universe. It is set right after the rookies arrive at Blood Gulch. Church isn't killed by Caboose, and Sheila isn't destroyed. Tex has not come to the aid of Blue Team.

Location: Unknown

A peace had finally been brokered between Red and Blue, and it was about time. The Covenant were at Earth's doorstep and the petty civil war had to end. Unfortunately, compromises had to made on both sides. It had taken two weeks of negotiating but an agreement had been made. Humanity would be united against the Covenant, but not Red and Blue. It had been part of the deal put in by Earth's representative. In return for not wiping out Red and Blue Command, Earth had forced the two Commands into a helpless situation. While men stationed at Command were given pardons, Earth demanded that all frontline units were guilty of treason, and had to be destroyed. Not even the wounds of civil war would remain when the Covenant arrived, all of Red and Blue would be dead. The two generals had no choice to accept, or it was their necks.

And so the Purge of Red and Blue began. The sacrifice that had to be made for humanity's survival had begun. And at the head of the operation, Earth's most trusted soldier, Masterchief.

Location: 2km West of Battle Creek

The Pelican was moving closer to its rendezvous with Red Base at Battle Creek, and Masterchief was reviewing intel one last time. It seemed that both sides had thrown their mentally unstable platoons into a single enclosed space to see what happened. The results had not been pretty. Isolated from society it seemed that both sides that turned the protection of their flag into a religion, and so fervent were they on defending the flag, that little seemed to kill them. But Masterchief had already solved that problem.

It was dark as the Pelican hovered above Red Base as Masterchief and Alpha Team, the best spec ops kill team in the corps jumped out. The eleven of them moved towards the entrance where a red clad soldier stood. Masterchief stepped forward and called out,

"Glory to the flag"

The red soldier responded in like before leading them into the base.

"I am forbidden to pass into this hallowed chamber." the soldier said as he stopped outside a room in the centre of the complex, "It is the Housing and Altar for the flag, long may its flapiness continue."

Masterchief gave his men the signal to spread out, and within seconds they were gone, spreading across the base locating any other soldiers present.

Inside the Chamber of the Flag stood a lone soldier, draped in a robe that seemed to have been made from thinly beaten red armour. Masterchief approached him before announcing himself.

"I bring news from Red Command," he said, "they have…"

"You bring news from the Motherland" uttered the red priest of sorts, "truly a prophet has come to lead us out of the darkness and to bring the flag forward for all to behold."

"Not quite," Masterchief was getting annoyed with all this religion. This entire civil war was being fought over a bloody flag! "I bring news that the war is over."

And with that he pulled up the flag from the hallowed altar, despite the priests gasp, and broke it with his knee. The priest fell to the ground clutching his heart, as did all other Red troops across the complex. It was like a part of their soul had been ripped out.

"How could you? Blasphemy! BLASPHE…" His cries were silenced by Masterchief's pistol, as the finished the old man in one shot to the head. He spoke into his helmet radio to Alpha Team.

"Their flag is no more, begin the operation."

The members of Alpha team pulled out their weapons before going to work on the collapsed red soldiers. Bullets to the head and as clean as possible had been Masterchief's orders. And with the flag destroyed, there was no chance of them returning from the grave again.

It taken only minutes to go in and out of the base, and as Alpha Team slipped out of Red Base and began the short walk over to Blue Base, Masterchief wondered that if this was as good as it would get. The Covenant were standing on their doorstep and hi job was go finish off two armies of untrained louts. He hoped there'd be some challenge during this mission, but judging by the difficulty of the zealots at Red Base, this mission wouldn't take very long at all.


	2. Onwards to Blood Gulch

Disclaimer: I don't own any of this. It all belongs to the fine makers of Red VS Blue and Halo.

Location: Blood Gulch (Outpost Number One)

The sun was beating down on Blood Gulch and yet no one was inside the Red Base. The Red army was returning back after losing the Blue flag that the rookie had gotten off the Blues a week ago. They had left the base that morning after seeing one of the Blues dancing the Macarena on top of a hill. Sarge had everyone spend the morning firing pot-shots at him. It wasn't until they saw another Blue sneak past them with the flag that they realised what had happened.

"Sarge, I'm so sorry that we screwed up the mission sir, I should have stayed at the base while the rest of you tried to snipe that Blue." As always Simmons was kissing Sarge's ass in an attempt to not lose his coveted second-in-command position.

"It's alright, Simmons," said Sarge, before turning to Grif, "you were just following orders like I'd expect you to. It's Grif with the history of insubordination who should have disobeyed my orders and stayed at the base."

"But Sarge, you said that if I didn't come with you then you'd make me the target"

"Exactly, I gave you an order, you should have disobeyed it. You know like you do with chores or our weekly poker games."

"Sir you order us to show you what cards we have"

"Yeah, I gave you an order. You don't see Simmons complaining when he shows me his Royal Flush, do you?"

"But…"

"No buts Dirtbag. I think I'll have Lopez do something to you for your lack of insubordination. Something involving you tied down and the Warthog."

"You mean the Puma?"

"Shut up, Private."

Its was at this stage that Donut, who was upset that the flag that he'd captured, however accidentally, had been stolen.

"Sir, am I still getting new armour?"

"Yes you are. I requisitioned it yesterday. Unless you want Grif's."

For once Grif didn't say anything, as they'd arrived back at the base and he'd run off to the kitchen for a snack. Sarge and the others moved into the main room of the base, where Donut's new armour was waiting.

"It's, it's…" Said Donut as he looked at his new armour.

"It's pink" Finished Grif as he walked in, before checking the answering machine.

"Donut," cried Sarge, "I didn't know you were a lady. I should have used my nicer manners, Madam."

"It's not pink, it's lightish red." Said Donut as he picked up his armour and left the room muttering under his breath the words "lightish red lightish red lightish… Hey this really complements my eyes, and it's so roomy."

Two Hours Earlier

Location: Sidewinder Red Base (Secret Red Command)

At Red Army Command on Sidewinder, a desperate message had been sent from the control room as Alpha Team massacred the finest soldiers in Red Army. By finest it is meant that they had a chance to kill a sleeping Grunt if were in a Scorpion Tank. So a massacre wasn't very hard to get when Red Army was facing the best eleven soldiers from Earth. It seemed that the deal to not destroy Red and Blue Commands turned out to not be worth much. Blue Command was already a smoking crater and when news had reached Sidewinder, they were already under attack. With all official forms of communication cut by the Alpha's, the General had managed to get a single message out from his mobile before Masterchief had reached the control room and killed everyone. He had sent the message to his most trusted officer. In the message were details of the Alpha's, and a briefing of the situation. As the bullets from Mastercief's Assault Rifle had penetrated his armour, the General's last wish was that he and all of Red Army would be avenged.

"Cortana," called out Masterchief from inside the control room "has Red Army been holding out on the locations of their bases?"

"No, we've exterminated all the bases in their databanks, but right before we arrived, someone deleted a file from the map. A last Red stronghold perhaps?

"But that would mean that there'd be a Blue Base there as well. I thought you said all Blue Bases were accounted for?"

"Chief you blew up most of Blue Command's computers with the Pelican. There could still be one left."

Masterchief had picked up the phone at this point.

"Cortana. Can you check this phone? Perhaps he left something there."

It took Cortana only moments to analyse the simple phone's message banks

"I've got it. There's a Red Base at Blood Gulch. The General must have sent a message with information about our mission to the men there."

"So we won't have the element of surprise this time?"

"'fraid not Chief. I'll signal the Alpha's to move back to the Pelican."

Finally thought Masterchief. A real mission. The other bases had been so easy to take out, all the soldiers in this war were idiots. But hopefully he'd still have the element of surprise when he arrived. He'd trained at Blood Gulch once, and he had some interesting plans to implement there.

He turned around to see that the General's was still moving. He shot him through the head and left. The General's last thought was that of revenge.

Present Time

Location: Blood Gulch

"Hey Sarge," called Grif "we've go ten messages, do you want to hear them?"

"Ten? They're probably just telemarketers calling about timeshare condos or Pyramid Schemes. Don't they know that Hexagons are the real way to money?

Grif quickly pressed the delete button before running back to the kitchen for more Oreos. The Machine deleted the messages one by one, until the words, MESSAGES DELETED appeared. They had no idea what was heading towards them.


	3. Meet the Alphas

Disclaimer: I do not own Halo or Red vs Blue. End of Story.

Author's Disclaimer: A slight deviation, but as the story progresses the Alpha's are going to be important, so I think they deserve one chapter to themselves before they arrive at Blood Gulch.

Location: 300 km East of Blood Gulch

It was night and the Pelican was sailing across the arid, desolate plains that made up the area surrounding Blood Gulch. This was n ordinary Pelican. They were nicknamed by the marines MOAP's, Mothers of All Pelicans, and only 10 were in service. Unlike most, they had the ability to fire missiles, which were slung under the wings, and had hanger space for three Warthogs and a Scorpion Tank, as well as the eleven men and women that called Lighting 1, as it was named, home.

The Alpha Team had always existed, the best in Spec-Ops that humanity had to offer. The mere possibility of their presence had once even sent a Covenant force into rout. However the official Alpha Team had died when the Covenant attacked Reach, half a world away from Masterchief and the Pillar of Autumn they had fought till the end and killed ten times their number in Covenant. So when the time came, a new Alpha Team had been selected. These soldiers were the best there was in their fields. Some were mercenaries, others soldiers in the Corps, there was even a convict.

Once the best munitions man in the Corps, Alpha 7 had been imprisoned following his rebellion with a sect that fought or the Covenant. Despite being on death row, when Masterchief had found hi transcripts, he had demanded his immediate release before being charged into his care. Since then Alpha 7, call sign "Grunt" due to his relationship with the Covenant, had been completely loyal to the mission, which didn't stop Masterchief and the rest of the new Alpha Team from watching his every move. Currently, Grunt was inspecting the vehicles and getting his green armour dirty with oil as he checked his Scorpion tank's main gun, under the watchful eye of Masterchief of course, as he was also the team's mechanic.

The other soldiers were inspecting their weapons and checking that their armour was sound. They were a collection of soldiers who during their career had held down forces against Covenant invasion, infiltrated human sects and assassinated their leaders, but never had they been called to an act as immense as the genocide of two whole armies. Most of the other Alpha's were professional soldiers, but two of them were mercenaries, hired by Masterchief to help in the mission.

Alpha 3 and Alpha 10 detested each other. Alpha 3 was arrogant, self centred and believed himself o be the best there was, which was almost true. His accent had gained him the call sign "Pom", but most knew Alpha 3 by his reputation as the bounty hunter, Wyoming. He had accepted the job immediately when he had seen how much he was being paid, but he also had other reasons, but those had been buried beneath layers of memories by heavy conditioning before he left on the mission.

Alpha 10, on the other hand was not so much a bounty hunter, as a gun for hire. Thanks to the Spartan Training Process, Alpha 10 was capable of taking down an entire squad of Marines, no sweat. However the abilities came at a price. Alpha 10 was all but controlled by the AI that had enhanced her combat abilities. Alpha 10 was essentially a prisoner in her own body. The AI had broken them out of the Spartan Training Camp, and since then had wreaked havoc across the battlefield of the Red Vs Blue Civil War. Call sign "Tex", she was the team's expert on the war, and thanks to the AI in her brain, was as tough as nails. She hated Wyoming because of his smugness and his arrogance, and Wyoming hated her because she didn't like him.

The Chief kept watching Alpha 7 when Cortana piped in. She had spent the last few hours analysing everything on the Re Command computers, from phone bills, to Intel reports searching for anything else about the Red Base at Blood Gulch.

"Chief, listen to this. The message that the general sent to Blood Gulch, it still hasn't been listened to."

"You mean that we still have the element of surprise?"

"Not only that, but the people there don't even know that someone's out to get their armies."

"You're joking me."

"No. They didn't answer the message the or even listen to according to the phones database. It keeps tabs on messages sent and received."

"This is perfect. They won't know what hit them."

"Chief, I suggest that we focus on the Red Base first. If they do listen to the message before we arrive, they might be prepared."

"Sounds logical"

"Of course it does. I thought of it"

Cortana returned to inspecting the databases, while the chief left Alpha 7's side, and prepared to inform the whole team of their good fortune. He still hoped there would be some resistance, some challenge when he arrived though.

Location: Blood Gulch (Outpost Number One)

"Hey Grif, I can lick my elbow"

"Shut up Donut"

Next chapter will probably see the arrival of the Alpha's at Blood Gulch, where finally we get to see the Blues. It will be released as soon as I decide what will happen. Please review and tell me if you like the new characters. They will play a larger role in part of the conflict, at least for while, depending on your review.


	4. First Contact

Disclaimer: I own nothing. NOTHING

Authors Note: Here are the names, call signs and roles of each of the Alphas for easy access.

Alpha 1- "Marine"- Frontline Shock Trooper

Alpha 2- "Delta"- Frontline Shock Trooper

Alpha 3- "Pom"- Sniper

Alpha 4- "Ranger"- Frontline Shock Trooper

Alpha 5- "Hunter"- Sniper

Alpha 6- "Revhead"- Pilot/Driver

Alpha 7- "Grunt"- Munitions/Heavy Weapons

Alpha 8- "Chain"- Pilot/Driver

Alpha 9- "Doc"- Medic/Communication's Officer

Alpha 10- "Tex", "O'Malley"- Frontline Shock Trooper

PS: Doc is not our dear friend Doc the Pacifist. Sorry.

Location: Blood Gulch

The time had come. The Pelican had gone silent about twenty kilometres from the Gulch, and was currently hovering ten metres above the ground, the only sign of its presence being the grass below being blown around by its thrusters. The Alpha's were stationed at the Pelican's back hatch, and were receiving their final orders from Masterchief. The plan was simple. The majority of the team would move towards the Red Base, while one volunteer would recon the Blue Outpost to ensure that Alpha Team wasn't caught in a trap. At first Alpha 7 had volunteered, but for obvious reasons there were strong objections over his leaving the sight of the rest of the team. They eventually settled on Alpha 10, and as they went their separate ways, the others could hear Alpha 10's battle cries. It was obvious that the AI inside her was borderline insane.

"I WILL CRUSH YOUR CHILDREN AND DEVOUR YOUR WIFE" the AI O'Malley cried before entering comm silence for the approach on Blue Base.

The other Alphas followed behind Masterchief. Even though they were the best there was to offer, Masterchief was still a living legend, and their commanding officer. Their gear screamed that they were proficient killers. Alpha's 1, 2 and 4 were armed with standard Assault Rifle and Pistol, and their job on the team was simple. Be the typical frontline troops and don't let the specialists fall into danger. And when the time came, take and hold the objective. Wyoming and 5 were armed with Sniper Rifles and Assault Rifles, although the Sniper Rifles still hadn't been used; the mission had been too easy so far. As heavy weapons expert, Grunt had a rocket launcher and a flamethrower he'd put together during the long flights. Alpha's 6 and 8 were vehicle experts, and were stationed near the Pelican in a Warthog, ready for when command came to engage the enemy. There was no doubt, these men and women were ready to kill.

The team climbed the hill. There was no chatter in typical military fashion as they crouched along the ridge with the Red Base in front of them. Wyoming and Alpha 5, call sign "Hunter" took up positions, pulled out their rifles and began to wait. It had been night when they arrived, so it would be a few hours before anyone was up. So they would wait, they would pick their targets and they would kill. Masterchief wanted to keep the element of surprise for as long as possible, so they waited.

At the same time, Tex, or O'Malley as she kept saying to be called was moving towards Blue Base. She'd been given orders to sit and watch, but screw that. Tex began to move down towards the Base, and attached a silencer to her pistol. She may not be an assassin like Wyoming, but when they don't even bother to put out a sentry at night, why wait?

Everyday, no matter how bad the day before had been, Donut woke up enthusiastic, exuberant and energetic, must to the dismay of the other members of Red Team.

"I'm going to go do my morning callisthenics Sarge," he called out as the sun began to rise, "with my new armour I can finally finish my workout without chafing up a storm."

It was at that comment that Grif spat out his morning meal of Oreos before running to the bathroom.

"Sarge, Do you have a new plan to get back the Blue Flag?" asked Simmons for the twentieth time that that morning, "I forwent sleep last night to come up some plans if you'd like to listen to them."

"For the last time Simmons, unless you can make a plan that somehow hurts Grif and gets back the flag, I don't want to hear it right now. Red Command is going to be so angry that we lost the flag. They might even make cuts here at the Base. We might have to let go of one of our soldiers Simmons… On the other hand losing this flag might be the best thing we've done so far."

"Yes sir. Do you need any more sugar in your coffee? Anymore tomato sauce in your milkshake…"

Up on top of the base, Donut had finished a hundred laps of the base and was starting with some stretches when Grif came up on top. He had gotten out of the base for some fresh air after his reaction to Donut's chafing.

"Hey Grif"

"Hi Donut" replied Grif most unenthusiastically. He'd had to do this every morning for too long now, life had been so much better when it was just him, Sarge and Simmons. Well, sort of.

"Grif"

"Yeah Donut?"

"When do I get to drive the Warthog?"

"Donut, you can drive the Warthog when, oo, a penny"

It was at that moment that a 12.2mm round from Hunter's rifle slammed into Donut and threw him into the base throw the ceiling. A second shot from Wyoming's rifle whizzed over Grif's head as he picked up the penny.

"Donut?"

It was then that he saw the three black clad soldiers charging towards the base with menacing assault rifles.

In the base, Sarge and Simmons had been discussing ways to modify the Warthog's gun to fire Grif instead of bullets when Donut's body fell from on top of the base onto the breakfast table, destroying Sarge's morning tomato sauce milkshake.

"What in the Ramayana is going on up there?"

Suddenly Grif jumped down from the roof

"Grif, I know we all hate Donut but that's no reason to kill him and drop his body on my tomato-shake."

"Sir there are very angry people with guns out there and they've already shot Donut"

"The Blues are attacking?"

"No, not the Blues, someone else. Look they've got lots of guns, they're wearing black armour and they want to kill us. I'm out of here"

"Black Armour?"

Grif was already gone, running out the side entrance of the base and up to the nearby cave cliff system. Screw the Team, he thought, Sarge'll just get me killed, or sacrifice me.

"Simmons. If they have black Armour that means they're Spec Ops. The Blues must've hired them to kill us, steal the Warthog and Lopez. We've got to get to Lopez."

Lopez and the Warthog had moved up to behind some rocks on top of the hill at the back of the canyon for privacy a few days earlier.

"Sir, how do we get there without being seen? They'll be here in a minute."

"Don't you worry Simmons, I've installed the perfect security system. While they try to get in, we'll sneak out the back."

And that's what they did. As they left the base and headed up the hillside that led to Lopez's Retreat, the doors to the base closed over and locked. Not even Hunter could see the two making their way up the hill; the sun hadn't risen that far and the end of the canyon was still in shadow. When Marine Delta and Ranger reached the base thirty second later they set a grenade at the door. It didn't work. Then Marine noticed the security panel next to the door. He pressed the enter button only to hear a booming voice with a drawling southern accent.

"I am the Gatekeeper. If you wish to enter, you must answer me these questions three."

Ten minutes later the door finally opened (Who would have thought that Delta's favourite colour was blue?) and the entire team moved in. Masterchief was the first to reach the central room, and noticed the body of the soldier than Hunter got lying spread-eagled on the table. He didn't have time to think, though, the other Alpha's had returned to the central room.

"What do you mean there's no one else here? There are bunks for five in the dorms."

It was then that Masterchief saw that the body on the table was moving. Its chest was rising ever so slightly.

"Get Doc over here." He pointed at the body as the others noticed its status of still being alive "Once he's stable take him to the Pelican and begin interrogation. Searching the entire valley for them will take time. But now we have a shortcut. Oh, and get in contact with Alpha 10, check her status, or his status."

When Tex woke up, she had a throbbing headache. Then she realised that she could move her arm, the AI didn't have control over her! But she could sense it stirring. There was no time for that however. All she remembered was entering the base and standing over a Blue and his teddy bear and then, blackness. The bastard came from behind, but hey, she was still alive.

"Guys, look what I found during the night."

"Church! You brought something for show and tell!"

"Church?" asked Tex a bit woozily. Surely it couldn't be him. Please don't let it be him

"Hey Allison," Church replied "Long time no see. Let's have a talk"

"Bow Chika Bow Wow"

You like? Please Review. You don't like, e-mail me your criticisms, as long as they are constructive 


	5. Dialogues of a Murderer

Disclaimer: Guess What? I don't own anything. Leave me alone to die.

Previously 

"Hey Allison," Church replied "Long time no see. Let's have a talk"

"Bow Chika Bow Wow"

Now 

"Shut Up Tucker or I swear…"

"You swear what; you'll actually die next time Caboose shoots you with the tank?"

"Sheila didn't mean to hurt anyone, she was just wanting affection."

"That wasn't funny. I was in the infirmary for more than a week after that. I still have shrapnel in my face from my visor"

"Ha! Suck"

Tex just watched on as the two continued fighting amongst each other. She noticed that the other Blue, the one that must be Caboose was standing in the corner mumbling to himself. He was still visibly shaken from the time a few hours, she guessed it was a few hours ago, when she had put the gun against him while he was sleeping.

It was then that she realised that she couldn't move her pinkie finger on her left hand. She looked down. It was still attached. Oh God she thought to herself, he's retaking control. Please not again, "Don't let it start again." She yelled the last part.

Tucker and Church stopped fighting and Church looked her way,

"What do you mean 'Don't let it start again'" he asked "What is it?"

"You already know, you son of a bitch" she cried "it's the AI, it's taken over me. It controls everything I do, say, think. I'm trapped inside my own brain. You knocked it offline for a bit, but it's regaining control."

"You mean the AI from your training program? I thought it just enhanced your combat abilities."

"That's what I thought. Don't ask me how but it's gained complete control over me"

She thought back to three weeks after the AI had been implanted. She had broken up with Church, with whom she'd had a relationship at Blue Command during training, in favour for a position at the elite Spartan Academy. She had been the top of her class in almost everything; stamina, marksmanship, melee combat. It wasn't until she reached advanced training that it went so horribly, horribly wrong. Each of the trainees was implanted with an AI to enhance their combat skills. Tex was codenamed Nevada. At first the AI had done everything it was supposed to. It had given her advanced tactical and combat data. But slowly, over a matter of months it began making more suggestions. It suggested whole tactics during combat practise, entire plans instead of just the readouts.

Later the AI began making suggestions on her actions; where she should go, what she should do. It began to suggest that she leave the Academy, escape from these people who would control her life, and then send her to die on a distant planet for a war they couldn't win. She had found the idea repulsive at first, but then states A-M were put into service, they were sent to Reach. When Tex found out what had happened on Reach, she realised that she faced the same fate, so she finally agreed to the AI's plan. It was now that the AI began to call itself "O'Malley".

The night she broke out of the compound she discovered that the AI had already planned everything. But as they made their way down the hallways of the Academy, she was stopped by one of her teachers. She couldn't remember what happened afterwards, only that her hands were covered in blood. She had hijacked one of the Longsword fighters from the facility, and escaped under heavy fire. Her ship took damage and she was forced to land on a small, out of the way outpost. It was here she remembered fondly that she had last had control of herself, until now that is.

It had been so inconspicuous. The AI had just told her to sleep while it looked after landing the ship. When she had woken up she couldn't move, but she was walking, she couldn't talk, but she was talking. They were not her words, not her actions, but when she had finished killing the inhabitants of the outpost, she heard O'Malley laugh. He had killed these people for no reason, and as she looked at a child no older than four, she was afraid. So very afraid.

She became a bounty hunter. She later heard that Wyoming had escaped, but it didn't bother her, she knew that he was no threat to O'Malley so he wouldn't pay him any attention. A few times the Spartan Academy had sent some of its kill-teams after her and the AI. O'Malley had made a fortune off their deaths, as the head of a Spartan kill-team member was worth a lot on some of the outer planets.

She had killed so many people, seen so much blood, that she wept inside as O'Malley continued moving on. Job after job, until they arrived at Sidewinder. She had dispatched the rest of the Blue Army at the base with ease; O'Malley had taken great pleasure when he beat one of them to death with his own skull. He had laughed as the man cried that it was physically impossible, she had just wept. But for some reason Church was spared. She couldn't understand it. Why would Church be spared? She had thought that maybe she still had some control over the AI, but later, when O'Malley took his anger out on a small town near Sidewinder, she had sworn never again to try and control him. The one time she had been strong enough to stop one death had cost the lives of over a hundred.

Since then she had continued moving around until she had received a message from Earth. Clemency for her past crimes in return for her services. Eve O'Malley was tiring at the Spartan's continued attempts to kill him, so they accepted and now she was here. Free for the first time in years.

"Tex, what are you doing here?"

Tex snapped back into reality. She was still tied up at the Blue Base, and O'Malley was regaining control. She could hear his laughter inside her head.

"Masterchief... and others... they're coming to wipe you out."

"What?"

"Earth's killing off Red and Blue, and they hired me to do it."

"You came to kill us?"

"I didn't want to but the AI… I can't control it. I can't get rid of it"

"IM ALMOST HERE ALLISON"

"Oh God, please, he's almost back. I don't want this Church. Please you've got to end it"

The AI was almost back in control. She was using all her willpower, back O'Malley was almost back in control.

"How can we stop it Tex? We need to know more about this mission of yours"

"Church, I want to be free Church, FREE"

"YOU WILL NOT SEE THE LIGHT OF DAY!"

"Calm down, tell me how to get rid of it"

"Kill me Church. Kill me now and end it. I want to be free."

Now for the first time, O'Malley was afraid.


	6. Death and Freedom

Disclaimer: You know the drill; I don't own any of this.

O'Malley was afraid for the first time since he had escaped the Spartan Academy. His host body, Tex had been unco-operative at first, but over time he had quenched any last flame of resistance against his will. But now, as he fought inside her body for control, he finally realised how far she would go to get rid of him. He looked at his options. He couldn't escape. Tex was a good body and it would take too long to break another's spirit, anyway an adjustment that had been made to his programming recently did not allow him to leave a host body until it was dead. He didn't know how the programming had been added, but he suspected that Masterchief had something to do with it, and that when this mission was over, there would be a few other options in store. The programming also made it impossible for him to inhabit another human body. Definitely Masterchief's work. So his only option was to escape with Tex's body in tow. But before he could do that he would have to retake control of her body, of his host.

"You want me to kill you, Tex?" Church was frightened. This was not the same Tex he had known before. She had never been afraid.

"Church, you cocksucking bastard. Pull the fucking trigger and kill me!" A bit more like the Tex he remembered.

"But why?"

"Because… damn it he's taking control. I've seen more bloodshed and death than any person normally does. He broke me down Church. I'm no longer who I was; I'm just an empty husk."

"What do you mean, surely there's another way"

"He killed my family. He broke my spirit, and then he went to my home and killed my family. My own body killed my parents and there was NOTHING I could do" She was screaming now, and inside you could see that she was indeed broken. O'Malley had done his job well.

"But you can control him, can't you?"

"No, he's too strong. Look, I don't want to live any more. I want to be able to see my parents, to be able to think what I want. I want to be free."

Inside her head, however, O'Malley was almost in control. Such heartfelt remarks, he thought to himself, perhaps there's still a spark in her.

Meanwhile, at the Red Base Grunt and Wyoming were on patrol around the base. The Pelican had been landed in the clearing next to it, and currently the others were inside, waiting or their prisoner to wake up. Grunt knew now that the timing was right for his real mission here.

Just before leaving, he'd been in contact with some of his masters in the Pro-Covenant Sects. They had given him a new mission. Just before he joined the others, Wyoming had been taken by the sect and conditioned. Completely normal after the procedure, Wyoming had simply thought that he'd had one too many and thought nothing more of it. But Grunt knew that all it needed was a single catalyst; a reprogrammed AI.

Wyoming had gotten rid of his own AI years before, and when O'Malley, who had been altered slightly by Grunt through a remote network, was forced out of his body, he would immediately move onto the host with the strongest signal, which thanks to a neuron chip in his head, was Wyoming. Then the programming in Wyoming would render O'Malley harmless, and the programming in O'Malley would open up Wyoming's real mission. It sounded complex, but thanks to Grunt's position as mechanic, it had been easy to set up.

Wyoming was looking out towards the Blue Base as Grunt came up behind him.

"I say, Grunt my old chap, I wonder where Tex is off to, don't you?"

When Grunt didn't answer, Wyoming looked around, only yo see a flash of metal, then blackness.

Grunt dragged his body into the bushes and pulled out a small remote. All he had to do now was detonate the implant he had hidden in O'Malley, and finally his real mission would be under way. Tex would die, but that was a small sacrifice of the coming of the Great Journey.

"Church, I swear if you don't pull the trigger, I'll kill you and kill myself."

"Hey Church, why don't you have Caboose kill her? He's the only one here who's come close to killing anyone during this war."

"Yes, why don't you let me kill… lady who wanted to hurt Teddy. Wait wait wait wait wait, do you want to kill her, or, to… make her a sandwich?"

"Oh for love God Caboose, shut up"

Church for that one instant forgot about the captive, but then he turned around to check on Tex only to find her standing there, no longer tied up.

"DOOOOOOOOOOM APPROACHES. DEATH TO THE PEOPLE"

It was then that Church made the decision. He knew that Tex had finally lost control. He had loved her when they had been at Blue Command, but this wasn't the person he'd known. As far as anyone was concerned, she was all but dead. She had given up on life, so what choice did he have.

Church pulled the trigger.

Grunt pressed the remote detonator.

Neither would know who was responsible for killing Allison Matthews, Private in the Spartan Elite Corps, but as she fell to the ground, Church immediately regretted his decision. One of the few people he had ever loved, had ever been close to was gone, by his hand.

"Wow Church, you actually killed her."

"It's what she wanted. She was already dead, inside and out."

"OOkay. Well what do we do about those people she said were out to get us?"

"I don't know, but if Masterchief's here, we'd better batten down the base"

No knowing what else to do, they took Tex's body out of the base and dumped it near the canyon wall. If what she said was true, there was no time for a burial. For the first time since the death of Captain Butch Flowers, Blue Team was actually doing some work.

O'Malley sailed through the radio waves. He had no control over where he was going. But suddenly he found himself in a body. The body with the strongest signal. Lopez silently screamed as O'Malley arrived. A new host, he thought to himself, as he began to go to work once more.

It was a pale world in comparison to what she had just left, but for once Tex was free. For the first time since she had arrived at the Spartan Academy, she smiled to herself, the fact that she could smile was great. The afterlife may not be so bad after all, she thought to herself. Now, she had work to do. O'Malley had almost broken her, but now she was going to show that upstart AI who was boss. But first she needed a new body.

Next Time: We once again visit the Reds as the interrogation of Donut begins, Grunt realises that his plan's gone pear-shaped, and the Blues are the only ones with any idea what's going on.


	7. Not the End, Only a Begginning

Disclaimer: I don't own RvB, I don't own Halo. I own nothing

Alpha 1- "Marine"- Frontline Shock Trooper

Alpha 2- "Delta"- Frontline Shock Trooper

Alpha 3- "Pom"- Sniper

Alpha 4- "Ranger"- Frontline Shock Trooper

Alpha 5- "Hunter"- Sniper

Alpha 6- "Revhead"- Pilot/Driver

Alpha 7- "Grunt"- Munitions/Heavy Weapons

Alpha 8- "Chain"- Pilot/Driver

Alpha 9- "Doc"- Medic/Communication's Officer

Alpha 10- "Tex", "O'Malley"- Frontline Shock Trooper

PS: Doc is not our dear friend Doc the Pacifist. Sorry.

When Donut woke up, the first thing he realised was that he wasn't at the base. H was lying down on a metal bench somewhere. Then he remembered what had happened. Grif had shot him! Then he heard the voices around him. He had been shot before during training by accident they said, but this was the first time someone had actually been around him while he was unconscious. Every other time he had just woken up and dragged himself back to Camp, his arrival coming to the great dismay of all the other recruits.

"Are you awake?"

The voice was vaguely familiar to Donut. When he opened his eyes he was greeted by a familiar sight. It was the saviour of Humanity, Masterchief. Everyone at Red Command during basic training had had a poster of him on their wall.

"Can you get up?" asked Masterchief. Be nice, he thought to himself, he doesn't know who we are, milk it for all we have.

"Ye… Yes Sir" replied Donut, as he slowly hoisted himself up so he was now sitting on the bench rather than lying on it. O. My. God. Masterchief is actually talking to me.

"Sir, what happened? Did I get shot?"

"The orange guy shot you." Masterchief answered with ease. It was almost sad how easy it was to lie to this hapless soldier. Not that it really mattered; he'd be dead soon.

"Why would he shoot me? Why does everyone hate me?"

"I don't know, but I want to help you. I'm on a mission from Earth. I need to speak to your Sergeant.

"You need to speak to Sarge? Well he'd normally be at the base. Isn't anyone there?"

"No. We arrived just as we saw you get shot, but when I arrived at the base no one was there."

"Oh. Why do you need to see to Sarge?"

"That's classified. Now do you know where this Sarge is?"

"Well, if Sarge isn't at the Base, and he's not attacking the Blue Base, then he must have gone to Lopez's."

"Lopez's?"

"Yeah. He's our robot. He got angry about a week ago after Sarge blew up that Blue tank and went up the cliffs behind the base with the Warthog. He can be very brooding sometimes."

"So you're saying the rest of the Reds are behind the base on top of that hill?"

"Well, yeah, it's not like there's anywhere else to go to."

Masterchief turned around and got on the radio with Alpha 1, who was in charge for the moment.

"Marine"

"Yes, sir"

"I've found where the rest of the Reds are."

"Where, sir?"

"See behind the base, that big hill?"

"Yes, sir. It's still in shadow though. The sun's not fully up yet."

"Well, get the rest of the team there as soon as possible and set up a perimeter. Wait till I arrive before we do anything."

"Yes, sir. I'll call back Alpha 5. He went on patrol to go find Grunt and Pom."

"No. Let him find them, and then they'll come back. I'll alert our drivers that they can prep the Warthogs. We can use those chain guns as suppressive fire."

"Yes, sir"

"That's everything. I'll just take care of our prisoner. Chief out"

Masterchief walked back towards Donut, who was just trying to stand up. As he moved towards the infirmed Red, Masterchief pulled out his pistol.

"Hey Mr. Masterchief, sir. Can I have your auto…"

BANG

Donut fell to the ground, a bullet through his head. This time he was dead alright. Masterchief checked the corpses pulse before standing back up. Suddenly,

"Sir, its Alpha Five"

"Hunter, have you found Grunt and Pom yet?"

"Sort of sir. You are not going to like this."

Over by the entrance to Gulch's cave system, Hunter crouched over the corpse of Wyoming. Judging by the body, he had been dead a while. A shame for Grunt that there was nowhere in this Gulch to hide but the caves.

"Sir, Wyoming's dead and Grunt's gone. Permission to take him down?"

"Permission granted. Shoot to Kill. We don't need him anymore."

Back at the Pelican, Masterchief was worried. Wyoming was dead, Grunt had gone AWOL, and he hadn't heard from Tex in hours. Perhaps she was just in radio silence, but things were quickly going pear-shaped, and Masterchief didn't like it. He stayed at the Pelican as the Warthog was readied. Now they could finally get to work.

Grunt waited in the caves. Once he realised that O'Malley had not jumped to Wyoming, there was little point to keeping him around. But he still had a job to do. He'd have to take up the job that was meant for Wyoming. It was up to him to kill the Masterchief.

"Oh for the love of God. How the hell do you get out of these caves? I don't even have any Oreos to eat or Simmons to annoy"

He couldn't tell where the sound was coming from, but Grunt smiled. He'd have some fun while he came up with a plan to kill the saviour of Humanity. He pulled out an assault rifle he'd taken from Wyoming and started exploring the caves for the mysterious voice.

Tex was having fun being dead. Ever since she'd arrived in this shadow world, she'd made friends with the tank ghost that seemed to inhabit the area. She was just driving around when suddenly, in front of her a being appeared. Even in this shadow world, you could tell it was pink.

Donut looked up at the tank that was right in front of him. This was the tank that Sarge had blown up. What was it doing here? What was he doing here?

"Umm. Hello nice tank lady. Where am I?"

Next Time: Sarge, Simmons and the infected Lopez try to escape from the Alpha's trap. Grif, Grunt and Hunter all in the one cave system. And Donut meets the rest of the ghosts of Blood Gulch.


End file.
